DOCSLIB.ORG

The Prosody of the Middle Scots Alliterative Poems*

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Prosody of the Middle Scots Alliterative Poems* The Prosody of the Middle Scots Alliterative Poems* J. Derrick McClure The importance of the alliterative line as a staple of Middle Scots poetry has long been recognized, and the essential characteristics of the thirteen-line stanza form favoured by Scottish poets have often been described. In her 1975 landmark study “The Allitera- tive Tradition in Middle Scots Verse,” a doctoral dissertation which is still by far the most comprehensive account of the structural features of the verse form, Margaret Mackay lists the poems which utilize this stanza: besides three substantial poems of major literary and historical importance, The Buke of the Howlat, Rauf Coilyear, and Golagros and Gawane,1 the list includes Sum Practysis of Medecyne by Henryson and the Prologue to the Eighth Book of Douglas’s Eneados, the anonymous Gyre-Carling, * This is a revised and expanded version of a paper originally presented at the Eleventh International Conference on Scottish Language and Literature — Medieval and Renaissance, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, July 2005. I am grateful to Florilegium’s anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful suggestions. 1 Respectively, and on the simplest face-value showing, these works present an elaborate re-telling of a familiar bird-fable, a comedic story nominally set in the France of Charlemagne, and an Arthurian tale of chivalry and feudal allegiance. For introductions, see Royan, “‘Mark your Meroure be Me’,” the excellent historical and critical material in Walsh, ed., The Tale of Ralph the Collier, and Jack, “Arthur’s Pilgrimage.” Only The Buke of the Howlat has a known author. Linguistic and stylistic considerations suggest, though not conclusively, that the other two, Rauf Coilyear and Golagros and Gawane, are slightly later in date and by different authors. McDiarmid’s carefully presented evi- dence that both are by Blind Hary, author of Wallace, has not been generally accepted; see McDiarmid, ed., Hary’s Wallace, 1:cviii-cxxxii. It is specifically challenged by Mackay, “The Alliterative Tradi- tion”; also cf. Riddy, “The Alliterative Revival.” Florilegium,vol. 25 (2008): 193-216. © Florilegium 194 J. Derrick McClure Montgomerie’s Ane anser to ane heland manis Invectiue and contributions by both antagonists to the Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart (The Flyting of Montgomerie and Polwart), and a short meditation by John Stewart of Baldynneis. She also cites two instances of a verse form identical except that the ninth line is short instead of long — The Ballat of Kynd Kittok and Lyndsay’s unique use of the stanza for Diligence’s opening speech in Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis — and a few other poems which also utilize the alliterative long line though in different stanzaic arrangements.2 In his seminal work on the history of alliterative poetry in English, Thorlac Turville-Petre notes that “from the end of the fifteenth century the thirteen- line alliterative stanza was only used for ribaldry and satire”3 (though the Lyndsay and Stewart instances are exceptions to this), and James VI in his Reulis and Cautelis pre- scribes it specifically for “flyting or Inuectiues.”4 Yet the remarkable fact is surely not that the form had by then come to be restricted in its use but that it had survived at all: even at the highly sophisticated court of James VI, whose poets prided themselves on being at the cutting edge of European literary movements, this old warhorse retained its popu- larity. Contrasting with the enduring importance, in Scotland, of alliterative stanzaic verse is the scarcity of poems in continuous unrhymed alliterative verse, a form which flourished in England: Scotland has, of course, only one major example of the latter, which can be seen as bringing the history of that ancient poetic form to a spectacular conclusion, namely, Dunbar’s Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo. The English and the Scottish responses to the enormous range of metrical pos- sibilities afforded by the co-existence of the French-derived metres based on syllable- counting with the continuing presence of the old Germanic verse forms are strik- ingly different. In the southern kingdom, rhymed octo- and decasyllabic lines and alliterating four-stress lines reached a peak of technical development almost simul- taneously in the works of Gower and Chaucer, on the one hand, and Langland and the Gawain-poet, on the other; but this was followed by a period in which, notori- ously, poets were chronically unable to devise any systematically applied prosodic technique: with or without alliteration, the interaction of syllable-counting and 2 For full literary examinations of the poems in this group, see Riddy,“The Alliterative Revival,”and Parkinson, “Alexander Montgomerie, James VI, and ‘Tumbling Verse’.”See also MacDonald, “Allit- erative Poetry and its Context,”for a summary discussion of the chronological relationships among Scottish and English alliterative poems. 3 Turville-Petre, The Alliterative Revival, 117. 4 James VI, Reulis and Cautelis, in The Poems of James VI, ed. Craigie, 1:81. The Prosody of the Middle Scots Alliterative Poems 195 stress-patterning was managed in an astonishingly haphazard fashion.5 At the same time in Scotland, by contrast, while rhymed octo- and (slightly later) decasyllabics, in stan- zaic arrangements and continuous sequences, were handled with assured skill and fluency, the old four-beat alliterative line continued alongside them in vigorous life. The distinctively Scottish development of associating the alliterative line with a spe- cific and well-defined stanza form appears to have provided a poetic context in which it was able to maintain its identity, and the two contrasting prosodic techniques co- existed happily throughout the fifteenth century and even most of the sixteenth, each giving rise to its own corpus of sometimes brilliant poetry. The present article will examine some of the essential prosodic features of the Scottish alliterative line6 with reference to the opportunities which they afford for literary effect and will discuss the development of the form, its literary exploitation, and the rather surprising manner of its eventual disappearance as a productive verse form. Examples have been chosen from throughout the chronological span of the alliterative tradition in Scotland: Richard Holland’s The Buke of the Howlat (c.1450) and the anonymous poems of the later fifteenth century (the other two long poems already mentioned and the short comic pieces Kynd Kittok and The Gyre-Carling); Douglas’s Eighth Prologue (1513); and finally, from the reign of James VI, the Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart (c.1580) and John Stewart’s Ane Schersing Ovt of Trew Felicitie (c.1585).7 5 For some landmark attempts to find order in the apparent chaos, see, for example, Lewis,“The Fif- teenth-Century Heroic Line”; Conner, English Prosody from Chaucer to Wyatt; and Cable, The Eng- lish Alliterative Tradition, esp. chaps. 4 and 5. 6 This investigation is confined to the Scottish alliterative line as used in the rhyming stanzaic poems. See my “The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo: The Final Fling of the Heroic Line” for an examina- tion of the prosody of this poem. 7 I shall ignore Henryson’s Sum Practysis and Montgomerie’s Anser because of their peculiar textual difficulties (resulting from, in the first case, the parodic treatment of medical jargon and, in the second, garbled Gaelic) and possible corruption; the Montgomerie poem is, in any case, a mere single-verse squib. For a brief discussion of the Lyndsay passage in the context of an examination of his use of varying metres throughout the play, see McClure,“Lyndsay’s Dramatic Use of Prosody,” 139. Quotations are taken from the following editions: Holland: Bawcutt and Riddy, eds., Longer Scot- tish Poems, 1:43-84; Douglas: Coldwell, ed., Virgil’s Aeneid Translated into Scottish Verse by Gavin Doug- las, 3:117-22; Montgomerie: Parkinson, ed., Alexander Montgomerie: Poems, Stewart: Crockett, ed., Poems of John Stewart of Baldynneis; Rauf Coilyear: Walsh, ed., The Tale of Ralph the Collier; Gola- gros and Gawane: Hanna, ed., The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane; Kynd Kittok and The Gyre- Carling: Ritchie, ed., The Bannatyne Manuscript, 3:10-11 & 13-14. Differences between readings, how- ever, sometimes affect the issue of prosodic analysis, and will be discussed as they arise. 196 J. Derrick McClure The basic format of the alliterative line is too well known to require any recapit- ulation here; equally well known are the differences between the line as used in Old English and in Middle English and Middle Scots. The most fundamental of these changes in its implications for the nature of the verse form was that affecting alliter- ation, which could now extend to the fourth stressed syllable8 and to unstressed syl- lables: by being relieved of its strictly defined function of highlighting the stresses, the pattern was freed to become an independent stylistic feature in its own right.9 The cumulative effect of this and the other familiar changes was to allow for a much greater flexibility in the line than was possible in Old English. The virtue of this development is that it allowed poets far more scope for their prosodic inventiveness; the other side of the coin, however, is that the limits of what was metrically acceptable became much more nebulous and the criteria for distinguish- ing metrical from unmetrical lines (or even, at the most elementary level, good from bad lines) more
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Middle English "Pearl"
    University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects January 2014 Dreaming Of Masculinity: The iddM le English "Pearl" And The aM sculine Space Of New Jerusalem Kirby Lund Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/theses Recommended Citation Lund, Kirby, "Dreaming Of Masculinity: The iddM le English "Pearl" And The asM culine Space Of New Jerusalem" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 1682. https://commons.und.edu/theses/1682 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DREAMING OF MASCULINITY: THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PEARL AND THE MASCULINE SPACE OF NEW JERUSALEM by Kirby A. Lund Bachelor of Arts, University of North Dakota, 2011 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of North Dakota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Grand Forks, North Dakota December 2014 © 2014 Kirby Lund ii This thesis, submitted by Kirby Lund in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts from the University of North Dakota, has been read by the Faculty Advisory Committee under whom the work has been done and is hereby approved. ____________________________________ Michelle M. Sauer, Chairperson ____________________________________ Sheryl O’Donnell, Committee Member ____________________________________ Melissa Gjellstad, Committee Member This thesis is being submitted by the appointed advisory committee as having met all of the requirements of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of North Dakota and is hereby approved.
    [Show full text]
  • Heroic Register, Oral Tradition, and the Alliterative Morte Arthure
    This article is one of a series of short essays, collectively titled “Further Explorations,” published as part of a special issue of Oral Tradition in honor of John Miles Foley’s 65th birthday and 2011 retirement. The surprise Festschrift, guest-edited by Lori and Scott Garner entirely without his knowledge, celebrates John’s tremendous impact on studies in oral tradition through a series of essays contributed by his students from the University of Missouri- Columbia (1979-present) and from NEH Summer Seminars that he has directed (1987-1996). http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/26ii This page is intentionally left blank. Oral Tradition, 26/2 (2011): 603-610 Heroic Register, Oral Tradition, and the Alliterative Morte Arthure Rebecca Richardson Mouser The Middle English Alliterative Morte Arthure (the Morte henceforth) begins with an appeal by the poet for his audience to listen to him as he tells his tale, thus asking them to focus on the aurality of his words. The poet implies an audience that is present in the telling, using first-person plural pronouns and mentioning the need for silence while the tale takes shape. By doing so, the poet highlights the centrality of speech in the heroic narrative about to ensue and invokes a particular performance frame, one that will be “keyed” by various aspects familiar to an audience fluent in the tradition.1 Of primary importance to this framing are both the alliterative meter and the nature of character speech, and it is my contention that this performance frame marks the text as heroic in the same vein as Old English heroic poetry, signaling a way to “read”2 the text that gives meaning to events that might be confusing for a modern audience, such as the two deaths of the Roman Emperor Lucius.
    [Show full text]
  • The Culture of Literature and Language in Medieval and Renaissance Scotland
    The Culture of Literature and Language in Medieval and Renaissance Scotland 15th International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Scottish Literature and Language (ICMRSLL) University of Glasgow, Scotland, 25-28 July 2017 Draft list of speakers and abstracts Plenary Lectures: Prof. Alessandra Petrina (Università degli Studi di Padova), ‘From the Margins’ Prof. John J. McGavin (University of Southampton), ‘“Things Indifferent”? Performativity and Calderwood’s History of the Kirk’ Plenary Debate: ‘Literary Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Scotland: Perspectives and Patterns’ Speakers: Prof. Sally Mapstone (Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews) and Prof. Roger Mason (University of St Andrews and President of the Scottish History Society) Plenary abstracts: Prof. Alessandra Petrina: ‘From the margins’ Sixteenth-century Scottish literature suffers from the superimposition of a European periodization that sorts ill with its historical circumstances, and from the centripetal force of the neighbouring Tudor culture. Thus, in the perception of literary historians, it is often reduced to a marginal phenomenon, that draws its force solely from its powers of receptivity and imitation. Yet, as Philip Sidney writes in his Apology for Poetry, imitation can be transformed into creative appropriation: ‘the diligent imitators of Tully and Demosthenes (most worthy to be imitated) did not so much keep Nizolian paper-books of their figures and phrases, as by attentive translation (as it were) devour them whole, and made them wholly theirs’. The often lamented marginal position of Scottish early modern literature was also the key to its insatiable exploration of continental models and its development of forms that had long exhausted their vitality in Italy or France.
    [Show full text]
  • Scottish Eccentrics
    SCOTTISH ECCENTRICS by HUGH MacDIARMID SCOTTISH ECCENTRICS The distinguished Scottish poet and literary critic who writes this book recalls how Bernard Shaw in On The Rocks ironically declares that the massacres after the Battle of Culloden were not "mur- der" but simply "liquidation," since the slain Scots in question were "incompatible with British civilization." He then surveys the whole field of Scottish biography, and shows how true this has proved of an amazing number of distinguished Scots, no matter how successfully the bulk of the Scottish people have been assim- ilated to English standards since the Union. The facts are irresist- ible and bring out the "eccen- tricity" of Scottish genius in an extraordinary fashion. The author gives full-length studies often outstanding Scottish eccentrics, including Lord George Gordon of the "Gordon Riots"; Sir Thomas Urquhart, the trans- lator of Rabelais', "Christopher North"; "Ossian" (James Mac- pherson, M.P.); James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd; and William McGonagall, perhaps the world's best "bad poet". But he supports these leading cases with apt material drawn from the lives of hundreds of Scots of every period in history and every walk of life, and in this way builds up a bril- liant panoramic picture of Scottish psychology through the ages, singularly at variance with all generally accepted views of the national character. 15 S. net By the Same Author Poetry Sangschaw Penny Wheep To Circumjack Cencrastus First Hymn to Lenin, and other Poems A Drunk Man looks at the Thistle Stony Limits, and other Poems Fiction Annals of the Five Senses Translations The Handmaid of the Lord (novel, from the Spanish of Ramon Maria de Tenreiro) Birlinn Chlann-Rhagnaill (poem, from the Scots Gaelic of Alasdair Mac- Mhaighstir Alasdair) Criticism Contemporary Scottish Studies Albyn: or Scotland and the Future Scottish Scene (in collaboration with Lewis Grassic Gibbon) At the Sign of the Thistle etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Poetry Are Combined to Unstressed Syllables in the Line of a Poem
    Poetry Elements Sound Includes: ■ In poetry the sound Writers use many elements to create their and meaning of words ■ Rhythm-a pattern of stressed and poems. These elements include: Understanding Poetry are combined to unstressed syllables in the line of a poem. (4th Grade Taft) express feelings, ■ Sound ■ Rhyme-similarity of sounds at the end of thoughts, and ideas. ■ Imagery words. ■ The poet chooses ■ Figurative ■ Alliteration-repetition of consonant sounds at Adapted from: Mrs. Paula McMullen words carefully (Word the beginning of words. Example-Sally sells Language Library Teacher Choice). sea shells Norwood Public Schools ■ Poetry is usually ■ Form ■ Onomatopoeia- uses words that sound like written in lines (not ■ Speaker their meaning. Example- Bang, shattered sentences). 2 3 4 Rhythm Example Rhythm Example Sound Rhythm The Pickety Fence by David McCord Where Are You Now? ■ Rhythm is the flow of the The pickety fence Writers love to use interesting sounds in beat in a poem. The pickety fence When the night begins to fall Give it a lick it's their poems. After all, poems are meant to ■ Gives poetry a musical And the sky begins to glow The pickety fence You look up and see the tall be heard. These sound devices include: feel. Give it a lick it's City of lights begin to grow – ■ Can be fast or slow, A clickety fence In rows and little golden squares Give it a lick it's a lickety fence depending on mood and The lights come out. First here, then there ■ Give it a lick Rhyme subject of poem.
    [Show full text]
  • SCOTTISH TEXT SOCIETY Old Series
    SCOTTISH TEXT SOCIETY Old Series Skeat, W.W. ed., The kingis quiar: together with A ballad of good counsel: by King James I of Scotland, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 1 (1884) Small, J. ed., The poems of William Dunbar. Vol. I, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 2 (1883) Gregor, W. ed., Ane treatise callit The court of Venus, deuidit into four buikis. Newlie compylit be Iohne Rolland in Dalkeith, 1575, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 3 (1884) Small, J. ed., The poems of William Dunbar. Vol. II, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 4 (1893) Cody, E.G. ed., The historie of Scotland wrytten first in Latin by the most reuerend and worthy Jhone Leslie, Bishop of Rosse, and translated in Scottish by Father James Dalrymple, religious in the Scottis Cloister of Regensburg, the zeare of God, 1596. Vol. I, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 5 (1888) Moir, J. ed., The actis and deisis of the illustere and vailzeand campioun Schir William Wallace, knicht of Ellerslie. By Henry the Minstrel, commonly known ad Blind Harry. Vol. I, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 6 (1889) Moir, J. ed., The actis and deisis of the illustere and vailzeand campioun Schir William Wallace, knicht of Ellerslie. By Henry the Minstrel, commonly known ad Blind Harry. Vol. II, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 7 (1889) McNeill, G.P. ed., Sir Tristrem, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 8 (1886) Cranstoun, J. ed., The Poems of Alexander Montgomerie. Vol. I, Scottish Text Society, Old Series, 9 (1887) Cranstoun, J. ed., The Poems of Alexander Montgomerie. Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Gavin Douglas's Aeneados: Caxton's English and 'Our Scottis Langage' Jacquelyn Hendricks Santa Clara University
    Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 43 | Issue 2 Article 21 12-15-2017 Gavin Douglas's Aeneados: Caxton's English and 'Our Scottis Langage' Jacquelyn Hendricks Santa Clara University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, and the Other Classics Commons Recommended Citation Hendricks, Jacquelyn (2017) "Gavin Douglas's Aeneados: Caxton's English and 'Our Scottis Langage'," Studies in Scottish Literature: Vol. 43: Iss. 2, 220–236. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol43/iss2/21 This Article is brought to you by the Scottish Literature Collections at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in Scottish Literature by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GAVIN DOUGLAS’S AENEADOS: CAXTON’S ENGLISH AND "OUR SCOTTIS LANGAGE" Jacquelyn Hendricks In his 1513 translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, titled Eneados, Gavin Douglas begins with a prologue in which he explicitly attacks William Caxton’s 1490 Eneydos. Douglas exclaims that Caxton’s work has “na thing ado” with Virgil’s poem, but rather Caxton “schamefully that story dyd pervert” (I Prologue 142-145).1 Many scholars have discussed Douglas’s reaction to Caxton via the text’s relationship to the rapidly spreading humanist movement and its significance as the first vernacular version of Virgil’s celebrated epic available to Scottish and English readers that was translated directly from the original Latin.2 This attack on Caxton has been viewed by 1 All Gavin Douglas quotations and parentheical citations (section and line number) are from D.F.C.
    [Show full text]
  • A Close Look at Two Poems by Richard Wilbur
    Ouachita Baptist University Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita Honors Theses Carl Goodson Honors Program 4-16-1983 A Close Look at Two Poems by Richard Wilbur Jay Curlin Ouachita Baptist University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Curlin, Jay, "A Close Look at Two Poems by Richard Wilbur" (1983). Honors Theses. 209. https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/209 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Carl Goodson Honors Program at Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons @ Ouachita. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A CLOSE LOOK AT TWO POEMS BY RICHARD WILBUR Jay Curlin Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Honors Program Ouachita Baptist University The Department of English Independent Study Project Dr. John Wink Dr. Susan Wink Dr. Herman Sandford 16 April 1983 INTRODUCTION For the past three semesters, I have had the pleasure of studying the techniques of prosody under the tutelage of Dr. John Wink. In this study, I have read a large amount of poetry and have studied several books on prosody, the most influential of which was Poetic Meter and Poetic Form by Paul Fussell. This splendid book increased vastly my knowledge of poetry. and through it and other books, I became a much more sensitive, intelligent reader of poems. The problem with my study came when I tried to decide how to in­ corporate what I had learned into a scholarly paper, for it seemed that any attempt.to do so would result in the mere parroting of the words of Paul Fussell and others.
    [Show full text]
  • AJ Aitken a History of Scots
    A. J. Aitken A history of Scots (1985)1 Edited by Caroline Macafee Editor’s Introduction In his ‘Sources of the vocabulary of Older Scots’ (1954: n. 7; 2015), AJA had remarked on the distribution of Scandinavian loanwords in Scots, and deduced from this that the language had been influenced by population movements from the North of England. In his ‘History of Scots’ for the introduction to The Concise Scots Dictionary, he follows the historian Geoffrey Barrow (1980) in seeing Scots as descended primarily from the Anglo-Danish of the North of England, with only a marginal role for the Old English introduced earlier into the South-East of Scotland. AJA concludes with some suggestions for further reading: this section has been omitted, as it is now, naturally, out of date. For a much fuller and more detailed history up to 1700, incorporating much of AJA’s own work on the Older Scots period, the reader is referred to Macafee and †Aitken (2002). Two textual anthologies also offer historical treatments of the language: Görlach (2002) and, for Older Scots, Smith (2012). Corbett et al. eds. (2003) gives an accessible overview of the language, and a more detailed linguistic treatment can be found in Jones ed. (1997). How to cite this paper (adapt to the desired style): Aitken, A. J. (1985, 2015) ‘A history of Scots’, in †A. J. Aitken, ed. Caroline Macafee, ‘Collected Writings on the Scots Language’ (2015), [online] Scots Language Centre http://medio.scotslanguage.com/library/document/aitken/A_history_of_Scots_(1985) (accessed DATE). Originally published in the Introduction, The Concise Scots Dictionary, ed.-in-chief Mairi Robinson (Aberdeen University Press, 1985, now published Edinburgh University Press), ix-xvi.
    [Show full text]
  • THE SCOTS LANGUAGE in DRAMA by David Purves
    THE SCOTS LANGUAGE IN DRAMA by David Purves THE SCOTS LANGUAGE IN DRAMA by David Purves INTRODUCTION The Scots language is a valuable, though neglected, dramatic resource which is an important part of the national heritage. In any country which aspires to nationhood, the function of the theatre is to extend awareness at a universal level in the context of the native cultural heritage. A view of human relations has to be presented from the country’s own national perspective. In Scotland prior to the union of the Crowns in 1603, plays were certainly written with this end in view. For a period of nearly 400 years, the Scots have not been sure whether to regard themselves as a nation or not, and a bizarre impression is now sometimes given of a greater Government commitment to the cultures of other countries, than to Scotland’s indigenous culture. This attitude is reminiscent of the dismal cargo culture mentality now established in some remote islands in the Pacific, which is associated with the notion that anything deposited on the beach is good, as long as it comes from elsewhere. This paper is concerned with the use in drama of Scots as a language in its own right:, as an internally consistent register distinct from English, in which traditional linguistic features have not been ignored by the playwright. Whether the presence of a Scottish Parliament in the new millennium will rid us of this provincial mentality remains to be seen. However, it will restore to Scotland a national political voice, which will allow the problems discussed in this paper to be addressed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Walrus and the Carpenter
    R E S O U R C E L I B R A R Y A RT I C L E The Walrus and the Carpenter National Geographic photographs illustrate Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter," and instructional material provides a guide through the poem's literary devices. G R A D E S 7 - 12+ S U B J E C T S English Language Arts C O N T E N T S 1 Interactive For the complete geostories with media resources, visit: http://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/walrus-carpenter-natgeo/ "The Walrus and the Carpenter," a silly and surprisingly morbid poem by Lewis Carroll, was published in 1865. It was a part of the book Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The poem is a narrative, or story, told by the annoying twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The GeoStory "The Walrus and the Carpenter . And National Geographic", above, provides the entire text of the poem. It also includes a walk through the poem, with an image and map accompanying each stanza, and in many cases individual lines. The images are either literal representations or metaphors of a line in the stanza. Use the GeoStory to better understand metaphors and other literary devices. Metaphors are figures of speech or visual representations in which a term is applied to something it could not possibly be. "Students have an appetite for learning," for example, is a metaphor. Students don't actually have an appetite for anything except food! Carroll uses a number of other literary devices in "The Walrus and the Carpenter." A series of possible discussion questions about the literary devices used in the poem is provided in the following tab, "Questions." The discussion topics progress from the simplest to the most difficult.
    [Show full text]
  • 29 02 16 Leahy on Douglas.03
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of East Anglia digital repository 1 Dreamscape into Landscape in Gavin Douglas CONOR LEAHY More than any other poet of the late Middle Ages Gavin Douglas knew how to describe the wind. It could have a ‘lowde quhissilling’ or a ‘softe piping’; could blow in ‘bubbys thik’ or ‘brethfull blastis’. Its rumbling ‘ventositeis’ could be ‘busteous’ or ‘swyft’ or ‘swouchand’. On the open water, it could ‘dyng’ or ‘swak’ or ‘quhirl’ around a ship; could come ‘thuddand doun’ or ‘brayand’ or ‘wysnand’. At times it could have a ‘confortabill inspiratioun’, and nourish the fields, but more typically it could serve as a harsh leveller, ‘Dasyng the blude in euery creatur’.1 Such winds are whipped up across the landscapes and dreamscapes of Douglas’s surviving poetry, and attest to the extraordinary copiousness of his naturalism. The alliterative tradition was alive and well in sixteenth century Scotland, but as Douglas himself explained, he could also call upon ‘Sum bastard Latyn, French or Inglys’ usages to further enrich ‘the langage of Scottis natioun’.2 Douglas’s translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (1513) has itself occasioned a few blasts of hot air. John Ruskin described it as ‘one of the most glorious books ever written by any nation in any language’ and would often mention Douglas in the same breath as Dante.3 Ezra Pound breezily declared that the Eneados was ‘better than the original, as Douglas had heard the sea’,4 while T.S.
    [Show full text]